[something vague]

I have made some grip inserts for my Ruger SP101 lately out of some beautiful bird's eye maple I got off a job. I have searched a bit to see the best way to put a finish on these panels and can't seem to come up with anything. Does anyone have any experience with this type of wood and can tell me how to make the eye's pop without adding too much dark color to the wood? I would also like to know of a final finish clear coat of some kind to add some dexterity to the surface. And while I'm at it, has anyone had experience making any of these on their own? What's the best way to drill out a recess for the screw pearilings and how are the stuck in place, glue or friction? Any help would be appreciated!

[krs]

Tru-Oil could give you the gloss and not need a clearcoat. It's a mix of linseed oil, varnish, and dryer that can be worked in several ways - as a grain filler, a satinfinish, a gloss finish, and a moisture sealant. Little 3 oz bottles of magic.

An endmill in place of a drill bit can make a nice clean recess for grip escutcheons. They are usually held by friction and usually have serations to maximize the wood to metal contact. They can be glued in if necessary too.

[something vague]

Thanks. The screw pearlings do have serrations all the way around and look as though they are meant to be tapped in tightly for a friction fit. I've never actually used an endmill but have seen some recently as I have been wiring a GE tourbine production plant and they have endmills in some of their equipment. They look as though they would be perfect for what I need to do. I'll have to check them out.

[sniper5]

I just made a pair out of Wenge for my wife's new GP100. I replaced the Hogue with an older style compact for the fixed sight version due to her small hands. I used a 1/2 " Router bit for the recess for the index pin and two different brad point drills 5/16 and 3/8 for the recess for the escutcheons. Using a drill press on high speed and going VERY slowly worked well. Be careful when machining birdseye. It is very unforgiving. I just pressed the escutcheons in by clamping in a woodworking vise. Perfect fit. After forming the grip panels I sanded down to 400 with the escutcheons in so they would buff out even with the surface of the wood and then finished with BLO and rubbed the crap out of them. Wifey likes dark wood and is tickled to death.

[koginam]

the link below describes several ways to finish the grips, I have used most of them at one time or another all work very well. http://thegunsmiths.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=23&sid=892b2729db95dfd4a0fd5a6481b59d79

[rcmodel]

You won't have any luck trying to use an end-mill bit in a drill press to drill holes.

Too much wobble in drill press quill bearings, and the flat end of an end-mill bit will chatter and wallow out the hole.

Just drill the holes with the proper size sharp number drill and press them in.

I usually coat the hole in the grips with a thin layer of epoxy first to "glass-bed" them in place.

rc

[nitetrane98]

Any of your oil type finishes will somewhat naturally enhance the grain. But if you really want to make those birdeyes pop try this.
Sand your grips to 400 grit using a wood block to keep the surface nice and level. Blow or vacuum the dust out of the pores, moisten the grip and let dry. Use a diluted wash of dye on the grip. Alcohol or water based dye, not oil based stain. Black, brown, dark red, whatever and let it dry. Sand the grips again with 400 grit and a block. Sand until the dye is removed from the harder portions of the wood and leaves the dye in the softer portion. If you like the blonde look of natural maple you can apply your Tru oil or a wipe on poly or whatever you decide to use. If you want to darken it up a little you can put on a diluted wash of amber or brown etc. and then apply your finish. The chatoyance comes from the contrast of the end grains and long grains in the wood and how they reflect light.
Hopefully you've still got some scraps to practice on. You'll need to experiment with the concentrations of the dye. A high gloss finish is best for bringing out figure.
If you really want to get fancy and make it look like you should be able to feel the birdseyes you can use the color complement of your second dye for the first dye.

[rcmodel]

The old time Kentucky rifle makers used nitric acid diluted 10 to 1 with water to pop the grain color on Birdseye & Tigertail maple before finishing.

You can also use a torch to scorch the wood, then sand lightly.

The hard Birdseye grain will not darken nearly as easily as the softer surrounding grain, and that really brings them out when you finish sand them.

I would finish them with Tru-Oil.

rc

[something vague]

nitetrane98,

"If you really want to get fancy and make it look like you should be able to feel the birdseyes you can use the color complement of your second dye for the first dye."

Could you explain this to me a bit more? Sorry for being such a pain. I think what you mean is to apply my diluted dye mix for my first coat. Take and sand this stain down a bit and some dye will remain in the softer grains of wood (not in the birdseyes). Then take that same mixture of dye and apply a final coat on everything again. Sand very lightly and then put a high gloss finish on it. Does this sound like it makes sense? Like you said, I want the wood to look like I can almost touch the birds eyes in the maple and also make the rest of the grains look almost 3 dimensional. I have no experience with staining maple but have always admirred the wood when done by someone who knows what they are doing. And yes I have some left over maple to practice on, not that I want to ruin what I have but it will be worth it. Thanks for the help everyone!

[nitetrane98]

I started to go back and edit my post about the soft and hard portions of the wood. With the exception of the tiny dark eye that is the remnant of a branch shoot that tried to form and didn't make it, it's all pretty much the same wood. Of course there is pith between the rings but the wood is generally so dense they are all but indistinguishable. That's why straight grain maple is pretty bland looking wood. Imagine the wood as a tightly bound bunch of tiny straws. If you cut them equally lengthwise the appearance doesn't ever change. Now imagine a million little curves in the straws. Now when you cut it some of the straws are opened creating a new end of the straw. These ends take and hold dye much better than the outside of the straw. What you want to do is basically create contrast. What you use your scrap for is to determine how strong you can make your tint and still be able to sand it off. It's important to use a minimum of 400 grit sand paper. Anything less will leave little scratches for the dye to hide in and clutter things up.

You want your first dye to be the darkest. Some people use black but I think it's a little un-natural looking. I like dark walnut Transtint Dye. What you want to do is get those tube ends full of dye. It will penetrate deeper in the ends than the dye will on the side of the tubes. When it drys you sand it back to basically where it was before you put dye on except you won't be able to get the dye out of the tube ends. (unless you really take off a lot of material.) An old trick woodworkers use is to now wipe with lacquer thinner or acetone. While it's wet this will be about what it will look like with simply a clear finish put on. If you like what you see at this point, go ahead and put your finish on. This should be about your maximum contrast. Personally I think plain maple is a little too bright and sanitary looking. I like to warm it up a bit with some amber and maybe a little walnut for the second dying. You want to maintain as much contrast as you can but strike a balance between good definition and warmth and gaudy. The neat thing about the dye is that you can put on several coats of a dilute solution and add to the color depth.
So kind of in answer to your question, no don't use the same dye the second time. There's no law saying you can't but it really shouldn't look any different than the first time you put the dye on unless you diluted it considerably more. Even then you would be losing some of the color contrast.
Forget about the color complement thing. I just threw that out to illustrate the contrast angle. The ultimate contrast of any color is it's complement. Like red/green, blue/orange and yellow/purple. There is a color complement for every hue and determining them is mind boggling.
You might try googling "popping the grain". Sometimes I don't 'splain stuff real good.

[something vague]

Thanks man. I think I understand now. This maple I have chosen is not only birds eye but has some wildly random grain patterns that I believe will take to this procedure very nicely. Depending on how the first coat of dye looks I may just leave it alone after that to keep the blondish appearance of the maple. That is of course after I sand off the dye on the plain parts of the wood. Thanks again for explaining this to me, shouldn't have taken me so long to get it but it can be hard to understand what someone is writing. It is actually hard to find dyes loacally.

[nitetrane98]

In my experience it has been impossible to find any kind of wood dye locally. I used Homestead a lot.
They have other types of dye too.
http://www.homesteadfinishing.com/htdocs/TransTint.htm

[rcmodel]

Still like to see you forget the die and try the torch trick on a piece of scrap Birdseye as I posted in #8.

rc

[something vague]

I will try the torch trick on a scrap peice. Is the idea behind that similar to the dye method. The burning will be more pronounced where the end grains show? And maybe the eyes will take on a darker color? Do you think that method would really make it seem as though the peice is 3 dimensional on the surface compared to a slightly figured peice with contrasting dies? Won't hurt to try anyways.

[something vague]

I think a contrast of Brown Mahogany solution under a Dark Vintage Maple would really look nice. I could see myself using these colors on lots of other wood projects in the future as well. Isn't wood such a beautifull and renewable resource. Thanks alot for the suggestions and the link nitetrane98.

[rcmodel]

And maybe the eyes will take on a darker color?Just the opposite.

The eyes & Fiddle-back will pop light color and the background will be darker amber.

Least thats what happened on the Birdseye I have used it on.

rc

[Specialized]

If you'd like to color the wood, use alcohol-based dye. The water-based will sometimes do unpredictable things to birdseye maple.

If you'd like to find a good selection of these dyes, take a look at http://www.woodcraft.com . They sell several varieties.

Hope this helps -- good luck!

Specialized

[Smithiac]

I want to see some pictures when you are done.

[something vague]

Thank you all very much. I will be ordering some Trans Tint dyes tomorrow as I can't find anything local. I no dought will keep everyone posted and will post pics of the results. Might be a bit though so bear with me.